


A True Gryffindor

by keepitdreamin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Marauders' Era, McGonagall is very protective of her House, Mentor Minerva McGonagall, Sirius is a Gryffindor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 07:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9311162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepitdreamin/pseuds/keepitdreamin
Summary: That’s the boy she’ll remember over the years as she goes to bat defending Sirius against other professors and his own family: the boy, small but sitting tall on the stool and his tiny determined voice. A true Gryffindor if she ever saw one.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Oops I wrote a thing. Based sort of off [this](http://nearlyheadlessfinnick.tumblr.com/post/137504221587/i-just-imagined-sirius-being-called-out-to-sorting) post, but ended up being more about McGonagal than the Sorting Hat.

Minerva has known Blacks for most of her life. She was taught by them, she went to school with them, she works with them. And if there’s one thing she knows about them, they are Slytherins. It’s a fundamental aspect of the line, like the Malfoys and other families, their house is nearly as important as their pureblood status.

When she calls out the next Black son (the _heir_ , he’s been highly anticipated for years) and the boy steps forward, she’s expecting this to be the shortest sorting of the year. The hat expects it too; as Black sits, she can already see it pulling up, the breath before the shout, the folds starting to gather as she lowers it…

“ _Don’t you fucking dare_.”

The boy’s voice is quiet enough she knows only the hat and herself heard it, but it’s hard and furious and _determined_ , and for the first time in _centuries_ , the hat settles on a Black’s head. A slight murmur can be heard from the Slytherin table and glancing over reveals several pureblood students looking on with shock and disapproval on their faces. She catches eyes with Dumbledore when she looks to the Head table and he’s watching on, with that amused tilt to his mouth and a twinkle in his eyes.

A minute later and the hat gathers itself up again and the Hall holds a collective breath—she knows it’s not quite true, there’s enough people here who don’t give a rat’s spleen about the Blacks or there sorting—and yells, “ _Gryffindor!_ ”

There’s mutterings—angry, shocked—from the Slytherin table even as the Gryffindors begin clapping. When the boy- no, when _Sirius_ jumps up and turns to her to return the hat, she scolds—not quite smiling but not _not_ smiling either—in her most mild tone, “Language,” and he _beams_.

* * *

 

That’s the boy she’ll remember over the years as she goes to bat defending Sirius against other professors and his own family: the boy, small but sitting tall on the stool and his tiny determined voice. A true Gryffindor if she ever saw one.

(Years and years later, after a rise and fall and rise again, he’ll greet her in Grimmauld Place and she’ll resist the urge to pull him into a hug. Sirius, who’d never been much bothered by things like _"s_ _ocial convention"_ and _"_ _personal space"_ in the first place, will drag her into one anyway. His smile now is clouded by years of hardship and loss, but it’s no less sincere than that 11 year old she’d met so long ago.)

**Author's Note:**

> It turns out I have a lot of feelings about McGonagall being protective over her House.


End file.
